The sun is yellow, and the moon is white. We have seen this in every image of the sun and the moon, that it feels like an established fact now. We cannot say much about the sun but, as far as the moon is concerned astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has painted a new colourful image for us. The photographer captured 50,000 high resolution photographs of the moon and then used colour data from further 150,000 photographs to come up with an image that shows the moon’s geographical details in burst of colours.
This photograph shows just how rich moon really is in terms of chemical composition which is remotely visible in otherwise standard images of moon. McCarthy made use of two different cameras in order to produce this image. One camera was assigned to capture the details of the lunar surface and its texture while the other captured atmospheric haze, stars and colours.
“The color was already in that picture, hidden behind the glare of the moon’s albedo, and represents the mineral content of our moon,” McCarthy writes. “While my previous images showed you the detail you could see if your eyes were sharper, this one shows you what the moon could look like if our eyes and brain were much more sensitive to color. The blues denote high titanium content, and oranges represent low titanium content in the basalt.”
Image Credits: © Andrew McCarthy
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h/t: My Modern Met